Prairie Village installed five of the new LED street lights at 79th Street and Reinhardt as a test. Photo via Prairie Village Public Works.

Later this year, you’ll likely start to notice a new look on Prairie Village streets after dark.

The Prairie Village City Council on Monday approved the purchase of 1,736 new LED street light heads that will be installed throughout the city.

Prairie Village began piloting use of the more energy-efficient street lights back in 2010 as part of a program operated by KCP&L. Since then, it’s replaced approximately 300 of the high pressure sodium lights that were standard in the city with LED models. Last year, the council approved the purchase of all of the street lights in the city from KCP&L as part of a long-term cost savings initiative. It also determined that it would upgrade all of the remaining high pressure sodium heads to more energy efficient LED models.

Philips Lighting out of Salina had the low bid in a competitive process for the contract at $334,323. Installation will be handled by Black & McDonald out of Kansas City, Mo., at a cost of $121,086. Contractors installed a test run of five of the new LED lights at 79th Street and Reinhardt earlier this year to ensure that they met the city’s requirements.

Public works officials decided to bid for LED lights that have a lower color temperature than the models used as part of earlier pilot projects. Those initial LED lights had a color temperature of 4000 Kelvin, meaning it contained more blue wavelengths, and emitted light that appeared whiter than standard street lights. The American Medical Association in 2016 issued a recommendation that new street lights have color temperatures not to exceed 3000 Kelvin. That recommendation was based on concerns that the whiter color temperatures can disrupt circadian rhythms. The street light head selected by Prairie Village for the new installations has a color temperature of 3000 Kelvin.

Prairie Village Public Works Director Keith Bredehoeft said he expects the street light heads to arrive in four to six weeks, with crews needing two months or so after that to get them installed.